Feed the B.E.A.S.T. | Josiah Igono, Erik Averill | Athlete CEO #61

Erik Averill (00:00):

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Athlete CEO podcast. I'm your host, Erik Averill, co-founder of AWM Capital where we partner with our clients to unlock the full potential of their wealth. And one of the key tenants at AWM that we believe is that you are the greatest driver of your net worth. That you yourself are that biggest asset. And so we've created this podcast, the Athlete CEO podcast, to bring you the knowledge, the skills and access to world-class experts to help you unlock that full potential. And once again, we are joined by our resident peak performance coach, the founder of All Things Performance, Josiah Igono. Welcome back.

Josiah Igono (00:53):

Hey, thanks man. Great to be here.

Erik Averill (00:55):

Jo, we are going to dive in to a topic that if you have been an athlete at any point in your life, people always tell you, "You just got to have confidence."

Josiah Igono (01:08):

Yes.

Erik Averill (01:09):

I agree. We need confidence. It's a lot harder than just saying have some confidence. And so I would love to just dive into this topic of how you define confidence, why it's important, and we'll jump off from there.

Josiah Igono (01:24):

Thanks for having me once again. It's a great topic. Every coach, every athlete has faced this word. Has had to navigate this construct of confidence. And when you look at confidence, I think it's very important to define it because if you don't understand definitions, you can't understand concepts. And if you're fuzzy on concepts, then philosophy doesn't mean a dang thing. So when you look at confidence, confidence is the level of certainty that an individual has in something or in someone. So if I have a high level of certainty in something or someone, guess what happens to my confidence? It increases. You and I both are sitting on these chairs. We didn't think twice before we sat down. We had some semblance of confidence before we sat down. So when you start looking at confidence, that's what it is at its basal level.

Erik Averill (02:13):

Yeah. It's helpful. Even you talking about deconstructing the definition of that certainty. And I think that that's when the advice of just have confidence falls flat. Because for me to have certainty in something, there's this mental battle of, I know whether or not I have certainty in something. So I can't just create confidence out of thin air.

Josiah Igono (02:41):

Right. Can't do it. You can't do it. And again, many coaches, many athletes have had to navigate this without a life raft. You know what I'm saying? "Just be confident." Dude, how do you do it? And so today I would love to share with you all how to do it.

Erik Averill (02:58):

Yeah. Well, that was a cliffhanger. I thought you were telling me how to do it. I mean, that's the natural question is, how do I build certainty? Or how do I build this confidence in something that is real certainty, as opposed to just hoping or wishing?

Josiah Igono (03:13):

Absolutely. So I have a book coming out pretty soon. And we're going to be talking about this construct-

Erik Averill (03:19):

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's stop the podcast there. We've got a book coming out?

Josiah Igono (03:22):

Yeah, man. More on that later.

Erik Averill (03:24):

Okay.

Josiah Igono (03:25):

Yeah, more on that later.

Erik Averill (03:26):

He just slyly just drops this in. "I'm going to be a best-selling author. Don't worry about it." But all right. Sorry to derail the conversation.

Josiah Igono (03:33):

No, this is awesome. So AWM baby. That's what we're here for today. But when you look at confidence, many times when we have gone to zoos or public parks, we see these signs, do not feed the animals. Why don't they want you to feed the animals? Because animals are going to keep coming back. What I want to do is I want to create a paradigm shift in the viewer, in the audience's mind. I want you to feed the animals. As a matter of fact, you are the beast. I want you to feed the beast today. So the acronym is B-E-A-S-T and all the letters in this acronym are scientifically sound constructs, whereby you can actually build confidence.

So the B, the B is body language. The research has shown us that individuals who have dominant body language. Even levels of testosterone are mediated through just your posture. If I have slouched shoulders, slouched head, I am giving off signals to the enemy, to my opponents, to my teammates, to my coaches that guess what? This dude doesn't want to be here. So just improving our body language is awesome. Dr. Allan Pease and his wife, Barbara Pease, and Dr. Amy Cuddy, if you ever have a chance to check out their work, they have some phenomenal resources when it comes to body language.

The E stands for environment. You can change your environment. Just your very words, your disposition, your smile, your body language, can change the environment. If the environment's negative, if the clubhouse is negative, if the dugout, if the locker room, if the lunch room, the training room is negative, do something to change it. You don't have to be your thermometer, be a thermostat. You know what I'm saying? Change the temperature. When an individual has a positive environment, it can affect their confidence levels. All right. This goes without saying, when you're raising kids, or if you're raising dogs, you know what I'm saying?

Erik Averill (05:25):

The analogy, especially from raising three young children. It's so wild because we know this stuff intuitively as parents. Your environment matters because we don't live in a neutral world. Understanding that your environment is forming and shaping you and doing something to you is so important. And we know this is you would never put a little kid in an environment where a bunch of people are negative or bad influences. Yet, we think somehow we're immune to that. So yeah, the environment, don't want to interrupt the acronym, but that is such an important thing and something in our control in so many times of our day.

Josiah Igono (06:07):

Yes. And David Rock in his SCARF model of leadership, he says that one of the elements for great leadership is certainty. And what you talk about in terms of the children, children, people, even people who we lead. They look for certainty. And then when they have leaders that are not doing this up and down and they're steadfast, and they are strong pillars of hope and a great example, it builds their confidence. So that's huge and I'm glad that you brought that up.

So when you start looking at the beast acronym, B is body language, E is environment. The A is affirmations. Just speaking positively to yourself. "I can do this. I've been prepared for this. This is my time." It can be a Bible verse. Something that brings to memory who you are, where you're going and what your value is. The research has shown that when you conduct, when you say, when you speak short powerful affirmations, they're most effective in building confidence. Not to get all nerdy and scientific, but when you start looking at the mesolimbic system in our brain which controls our behavior, when you audibly use affirmations, the benefits physiologically are huge. So the A is affirmations.

The S is sights. Where are you setting your sights? It has everything to do with the mental skill of visualization. You would never buy a pair of binoculars and start looking at the floor like this. You know what I mean? You would never do that. "Oh, look at those ants right there, man. Those ants are really getting after it. They're preparing for the..." No one does that. We get binoculars so that we can see the horizon. We can see things as they could be. When we take a visualization and we couple that with our physical preparation, we are heightening the opportunity for great performances. You will see this in people like Michael Phelps, Steve Nash. The list goes on. Boxers do it all the time when they shadow box. Many people are visualizing or using these skills and they don't even know it. Anytime a batter is on-deck circle and he's timing up the pitcher, that's visualization.

Erik Averill (08:23):

Yeah. What brings this into sight, when we're recording this, it's in the middle of the Olympics. And forget what's going on around advertising and COVID and all that fun stuff is what I love about the Olympics is seeing that shared commonality, regardless of sport. We were watching the women's hurdles the other day, and you could watch them go through their visualization process. You watch these athletes right before they perform and so many of them close their eyes. And you know that they are visualizing that performance. And it's just a fun thing to see.

Josiah Igono (09:01):

It is. And it's universal. It's not just the United States. You see it in every representative, every country. And many people again, are doing this and they don't even know. So the S is sights. Where are you setting your sights? Where are you visualizing?

And then the final letter is T. The research has shown us that one of the areas whereby we can extract the most competence is from triumphs. T is triumphs or performance accomplishments. What have you done in the past? That is one of the biggest bodies of work is what we've done in the past. We always hear the term, if you want to predict future performance, just look at what they've done in the past. You know this better than anybody. Contracts, many contracts are determined by past accomplishments. Whether they deserve it or not.

Erik Averill (09:56):

It's all based off of it.

Josiah Igono (09:57):

You see what I'm saying?

Erik Averill (09:58):

Yeah.

Josiah Igono (09:59):

So the T is triumphs. What have you done? There's a reason why before every season, teams are playing highlight tapes. At every award ceremony, at every Oscars, Emmys, whatever, they're playing the highlights of the year. And everybody's like, "Oh man, this is awesome." Everybody's confidence is just growing. Triumphs, what have you done in the past? Take some time to review what you've done well, and that builds confidence. So body language, your environment, affirmations, your sights, the mental skill of visualization, and triumphs. What have your accomplishments been in the past? These are all areas that you can execute in game, feed that beast, build your confidence.

Erik Averill (10:44):

Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I love it. And what I get so excited is he's breaking down, Jo's breaking these down is, we've done podcasts on literally every single one of these things already. Championship body language. We will link to all of this in the show notes, athleteceo.com to make sure that you have access to this. Think of that affirmations. The language that we speak, the triumphs. So connected to what we had talked about in the perfectionism podcast of how do we fight against it with that camps of celebrating those things. And so this was so helpful because truthfully for the first time, instead of telling somebody to just go create fake confidence, it's, let's walk through this framework. Let's make you a beast that you can actually be certain about the performance that you're going to have and have true confidence. And so we just love spending this time with you guys. Hopefully it's been helpful. Head over to athleteceo.com, once again, to access the show notes. And until next time, stay humble, stay hungry

Erik Averill (00:00):

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Athlete CEO podcast. I'm your host, Erik Averill, co-founder of AWM Capital where we partner with our clients to unlock the full potential of their wealth. And one of the key tenants at AWM that we believe is that you are the greatest driver of your net worth. That you yourself are that biggest asset. And so we've created this podcast, the Athlete CEO podcast, to bring you the knowledge, the skills and access to world-class experts to help you unlock that full potential. And once again, we are joined by our resident peak performance coach, the founder of All Things Performance, Josiah Igono. Welcome back.

Josiah Igono (00:53):

Hey, thanks man. Great to be here.

Erik Averill (00:55):

Jo, we are going to dive in to a topic that if you have been an athlete at any point in your life, people always tell you, "You just got to have confidence."

Josiah Igono (01:08):

Yes.

Erik Averill (01:09):

I agree. We need confidence. It's a lot harder than just saying have some confidence. And so I would love to just dive into this topic of how you define confidence, why it's important, and we'll jump off from there.

Josiah Igono (01:24):

Thanks for having me once again. It's a great topic. Every coach, every athlete has faced this word. Has had to navigate this construct of confidence. And when you look at confidence, I think it's very important to define it because if you don't understand definitions, you can't understand concepts. And if you're fuzzy on concepts, then philosophy doesn't mean a dang thing. So when you look at confidence, confidence is the level of certainty that an individual has in something or in someone. So if I have a high level of certainty in something or someone, guess what happens to my confidence? It increases. You and I both are sitting on these chairs. We didn't think twice before we sat down. We had some semblance of confidence before we sat down. So when you start looking at confidence, that's what it is at its basal level.

Erik Averill (02:13):

Yeah. It's helpful. Even you talking about deconstructing the definition of that certainty. And I think that that's when the advice of just have confidence falls flat. Because for me to have certainty in something, there's this mental battle of, I know whether or not I have certainty in something. So I can't just create confidence out of thin air.

Josiah Igono (02:41):

Right. Can't do it. You can't do it. And again, many coaches, many athletes have had to navigate this without a life raft. You know what I'm saying? "Just be confident." Dude, how do you do it? And so today I would love to share with you all how to do it.

Erik Averill (02:58):

Yeah. Well, that was a cliffhanger. I thought you were telling me how to do it. I mean, that's the natural question is, how do I build certainty? Or how do I build this confidence in something that is real certainty, as opposed to just hoping or wishing?

Josiah Igono (03:13):

Absolutely. So I have a book coming out pretty soon. And we're going to be talking about this construct-

Erik Averill (03:19):

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's stop the podcast there. We've got a book coming out?

Josiah Igono (03:22):

Yeah, man. More on that later.

Erik Averill (03:24):

Okay.

Josiah Igono (03:25):

Yeah, more on that later.

Erik Averill (03:26):

He just slyly just drops this in. "I'm going to be a best-selling author. Don't worry about it." But all right. Sorry to derail the conversation.

Josiah Igono (03:33):

No, this is awesome. So AWM baby. That's what we're here for today. But when you look at confidence, many times when we have gone to zoos or public parks, we see these signs, do not feed the animals. Why don't they want you to feed the animals? Because animals are going to keep coming back. What I want to do is I want to create a paradigm shift in the viewer, in the audience's mind. I want you to feed the animals. As a matter of fact, you are the beast. I want you to feed the beast today. So the acronym is B-E-A-S-T and all the letters in this acronym are scientifically sound constructs, whereby you can actually build confidence.

So the B, the B is body language. The research has shown us that individuals who have dominant body language. Even levels of testosterone are mediated through just your posture. If I have slouched shoulders, slouched head, I am giving off signals to the enemy, to my opponents, to my teammates, to my coaches that guess what? This dude doesn't want to be here. So just improving our body language is awesome. Dr. Allan Pease and his wife, Barbara Pease, and Dr. Amy Cuddy, if you ever have a chance to check out their work, they have some phenomenal resources when it comes to body language.

The E stands for environment. You can change your environment. Just your very words, your disposition, your smile, your body language, can change the environment. If the environment's negative, if the clubhouse is negative, if the dugout, if the locker room, if the lunch room, the training room is negative, do something to change it. You don't have to be your thermometer, be a thermostat. You know what I'm saying? Change the temperature. When an individual has a positive environment, it can affect their confidence levels. All right. This goes without saying, when you're raising kids, or if you're raising dogs, you know what I'm saying?

Erik Averill (05:25):

The analogy, especially from raising three young children. It's so wild because we know this stuff intuitively as parents. Your environment matters because we don't live in a neutral world. Understanding that your environment is forming and shaping you and doing something to you is so important. And we know this is you would never put a little kid in an environment where a bunch of people are negative or bad influences. Yet, we think somehow we're immune to that. So yeah, the environment, don't want to interrupt the acronym, but that is such an important thing and something in our control in so many times of our day.

Josiah Igono (06:07):

Yes. And David Rock in his SCARF model of leadership, he says that one of the elements for great leadership is certainty. And what you talk about in terms of the children, children, people, even people who we lead. They look for certainty. And then when they have leaders that are not doing this up and down and they're steadfast, and they are strong pillars of hope and a great example, it builds their confidence. So that's huge and I'm glad that you brought that up.

So when you start looking at the beast acronym, B is body language, E is environment. The A is affirmations. Just speaking positively to yourself. "I can do this. I've been prepared for this. This is my time." It can be a Bible verse. Something that brings to memory who you are, where you're going and what your value is. The research has shown that when you conduct, when you say, when you speak short powerful affirmations, they're most effective in building confidence. Not to get all nerdy and scientific, but when you start looking at the mesolimbic system in our brain which controls our behavior, when you audibly use affirmations, the benefits physiologically are huge. So the A is affirmations.

The S is sights. Where are you setting your sights? It has everything to do with the mental skill of visualization. You would never buy a pair of binoculars and start looking at the floor like this. You know what I mean? You would never do that. "Oh, look at those ants right there, man. Those ants are really getting after it. They're preparing for the..." No one does that. We get binoculars so that we can see the horizon. We can see things as they could be. When we take a visualization and we couple that with our physical preparation, we are heightening the opportunity for great performances. You will see this in people like Michael Phelps, Steve Nash. The list goes on. Boxers do it all the time when they shadow box. Many people are visualizing or using these skills and they don't even know it. Anytime a batter is on-deck circle and he's timing up the pitcher, that's visualization.

Erik Averill (08:23):

Yeah. What brings this into sight, when we're recording this, it's in the middle of the Olympics. And forget what's going on around advertising and COVID and all that fun stuff is what I love about the Olympics is seeing that shared commonality, regardless of sport. We were watching the women's hurdles the other day, and you could watch them go through their visualization process. You watch these athletes right before they perform and so many of them close their eyes. And you know that they are visualizing that performance. And it's just a fun thing to see.

Josiah Igono (09:01):

It is. And it's universal. It's not just the United States. You see it in every representative, every country. And many people again, are doing this and they don't even know. So the S is sights. Where are you setting your sights? Where are you visualizing?

And then the final letter is T. The research has shown us that one of the areas whereby we can extract the most competence is from triumphs. T is triumphs or performance accomplishments. What have you done in the past? That is one of the biggest bodies of work is what we've done in the past. We always hear the term, if you want to predict future performance, just look at what they've done in the past. You know this better than anybody. Contracts, many contracts are determined by past accomplishments. Whether they deserve it or not.

Erik Averill (09:56):

It's all based off of it.

Josiah Igono (09:57):

You see what I'm saying?

Erik Averill (09:58):

Yeah.

Josiah Igono (09:59):

So the T is triumphs. What have you done? There's a reason why before every season, teams are playing highlight tapes. At every award ceremony, at every Oscars, Emmys, whatever, they're playing the highlights of the year. And everybody's like, "Oh man, this is awesome." Everybody's confidence is just growing. Triumphs, what have you done in the past? Take some time to review what you've done well, and that builds confidence. So body language, your environment, affirmations, your sights, the mental skill of visualization, and triumphs. What have your accomplishments been in the past? These are all areas that you can execute in game, feed that beast, build your confidence.

Erik Averill (10:44):

Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I love it. And what I get so excited is he's breaking down, Jo's breaking these down is, we've done podcasts on literally every single one of these things already. Championship body language. We will link to all of this in the show notes, athleteceo.com to make sure that you have access to this. Think of that affirmations. The language that we speak, the triumphs. So connected to what we had talked about in the perfectionism podcast of how do we fight against it with that camps of celebrating those things. And so this was so helpful because truthfully for the first time, instead of telling somebody to just go create fake confidence, it's, let's walk through this framework. Let's make you a beast that you can actually be certain about the performance that you're going to have and have true confidence. And so we just love spending this time with you guys. Hopefully it's been helpful. Head over to athleteceo.com, once again, to access the show notes. And until next time, stay humble, stay hungry.